Reach4thealps is 15 years old this year and what a 15 years it has been!

Reach4thealps was born on a ski holiday in Chamonix over New Year 2001 when a young Scottish couple with big dreams decided they could provide guests with a much better chalet holiday than the one they were on. So returning home they decided to quit their corporate lives and do exactly that!

The name for the company was decided over drinks with friends in All Bar One in Leicester Square. Name suggestions for the company were written on napkins, some memorable ideas included “Mount The Mogul” and “Hairy Moose”, the winner being Reach4thealps! Marcus evidently had visions of taking over the Alps.

Gina and Marcus met whilst at school in Scotland and caught the mountain bug after Gina did a season in Chamonix. They then did a season together in Morzine and that’s where the decision to “go it alone” was made. They started back in 2002 with one chalet, Chalet Sol Re, which they still own and run as apartments in the winter and summer. They ran this master chalet for two years before deciding to expand and grow Reach4thealps.

Marcus in 2003 with the original R4TA logo

15 years (and two children) later, Gina and Marcus now have a total of 17 properties on the Reach4thealps portfolio. 9 catered properties in Morzine and Les Gets and 8 self catered properties in the two resorts. The little orange man of the Reach4thealps logo can be seen on our many branded vans in Morzine and Les Gets so keep your eyes out for him. We recently did a rebrand and for a time we were going to lose the little man but after much opposition from repeat guests and friends of Reach4thealps we decided to keep him but have modernised the text and brought the man up to date! We have also relaunched our website and have a new booking system.

In the time that Reach4thealps has grown and changed so have the resorts of Morzine and Les Gets. The new high speed telecabine taking guests from Prodains to Avoriaz has made a huge difference as have brand new facilities for families like the Aquariaz and Morzine swimming pools and leisure centres. We’ve witnessed summer holidays grow in popularity as well here in Morzine and Les Gets over the last 15 years with a dramatic increase in bookings with people coming out here to mountain and road bike, run, swim and hike. Not to mention the amazing choice of restaurants and bars we have here now compared to the few around when we started in 2002. There’s a huge choice in Morzine and Les Gets and the two resorts continue to thrive.

Much of Reach4thealps’ success is down to the amazing number of repeat guests that we get year on year. Each year, around 75% of the people who come to stay with us have stayed with us at least once before. We love how people who started off as guests are now friends. Gina loves dropping into the chalets over the winter to catch up with people and have the odd dinner in the chalet.

This year, talking of dinners, to mark 15 years of Reach4thealps, we have a brand new menu. We’ve kept some of the old favourites including the famous Massaman curry and our popular deconstructed cheesecake. However watch out for some new delicious additions including a Scottish themed night with veggie haggis and tatties! What better way to celebrate our birthday than through tasty food and carefully selected wines for all of our guests.

Reach4thealps started off with just 4 members of staff, Gina & Marcus, Marie-Anne and Simon running everything including the catering, driving, accommodation and bookings at Chalet Sol Re. This year we’re employing our highest number of staff to date with 20 plus people on the team. We’ve got 4 of us in the office, Alice and Jane (who is on her 10th year with us) and Sian our chalet manager joins us in the winter. Lee is still our Mr Fix It Man and does more transfers than he cares to think about. It’s thanks to the great team we have year on year that we won the SOURCE Award last year for Best Customer Service and to you, our guests, for voting for us!! This year’s team are all due to arrive in town on the 5th of December. Then a busy week of training and food tasting begins…we can’t wait to get started.

In the time that we have been established we’ve also worked hard to listen to the views of our guests and are constantly trying to improve our service. We have changed some small things which have proved very popular over the last few years including introducing larger, more luxurious bath towels. We now have canapes and aperitifs every night and we’ve replaced beds with zip and link beds which are much more comfortable when made into doubles. Also keep your eyes open around the chalets for luxury toiletry brands Arran Aromatics and Mydffai.

So 2017/18 is a very exciting year for Reach4thealps and we’re planning on celebrating our birthday in style. We have a brand new self-catered chalet for this winter Ferme de Couttetaz is right in the heart of Morzine and has a large garden with great views and an outdoor hot tub to admire those views from!. Lots of our older chalets have had makeovers, Chalet Martinet and Chalet Alouette in Les Gets have new luxury zip and link beds, comfy squishy sofas and new curtains and soft furnishings. Our newest chalets in the centre of Morzine are selling like hot cakes and are something special. Don’t worry though, there are still some weeks left at Chalet Chouette and Chalet Hibou. We’re excited to see you over the next few months.

We still have availability across the board for winter – whether you’re looking for catered or self catered. So come and join us to celebrate our birthday and have a ski holiday to remember this year!

ALSO – don’t forget – you could win a ski holiday with us to celebrate our 15th Birthday. All you need to do is make a simple 20 second video saying happy birthday. Details are on our website.